Welcome!

As you can probably tell, I love counted cross stitch! Like most stitchers, I have a huge collection of purchased patterns, but I take great delight in finding new free charts. I have started this blog as a "Pay It Forward" thank you to all the generous stitchers who have provided free cross stitch charts throughout the years, from all around the world. I enjoy designing simple charts as much as I like stitching, so I will post free charts I have designed here for all to access. I hope you will enjoy the charts as much as I have enjoyed designing them and as much as I have delighted in the charts others have done!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

I received an email today from Loris with a picture of her stitched version of the Scissors Crosspatch Chart and she kindly said I could post it here. I just love seeing the stitched pieces and seeing the choices for fabrics and flosses! You can see this and her other beautiful stitching in her Webshots albums - http://community.webshots.com/user/loris42 . Thanks again, Loris, for taking the time to stitch my chart and for sharing your picture!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Fabienne has kindly sent me a picture of the small snowflake fob she stitched and finished! She has more pictures on her blog - please check them out and take a look around her blog while you are there. It can be found here or http://faby.over-blog.fr/. I think it turned out wonderfully - I love her thread choices, the sparkle really brings it to life! Thanks so much, Fabienne, for sharing your finish!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Still no Internet at home so another quick post from work. I have no idea how long it will take to get my phone, cable and Internet back but I know it takes a backseat to restoring electricity to 600,000 homes and businesses statewide, not to mention digging out from under all the broken tree limbs and whole trees that are down. It really does look like a war zone right now but they are working on it. Now they are predicting snow for the weekend (only 3 or 4 inches, so they say) but at least that's better than all the ice and freezing rain.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

If you've been here before, you may have noticed I have a new header on my blog now. Isn't it wonderful!?! I just love it and it was such a nice surprise from Barbara Ana! If you have visited the CyberStitchers free charts website you probably know Barbara's name already because she has lots of cute free charts there. I just love her charts because they are fresh designs with lots of bright colors, just begging to be stitched! Along with the charts she offers there, she has begun to sell some charts as well. I hope everyone will take the time to check her website here and see what she has. I think she is one of the most talented designers to come along and I think she will be a big success. I love free charts, but I know that lots of designers need the income from sales to be able to continue to design new projects for us, and I am a firm believer in supporting them. I have often bought charts I like, knowing full well, I will never have the time to stitch them all, but I do it to help keep designers designing. Do I just have money to burn? Absolutely not! But I think it's important to support the needlework designing industry - there is room for all - professionals and hobbyists (like me) alike. The worst thing about Barbara Ana Designs? Deciding which one to stitch first! Check it out!

Today's chart is for a scissors case. I think 16ct or 32ct over two threads will probably work best. There will be matching scissors fob and needlecase charts (maybe a biscornu as well?) over the next few days. The small dotted line is not stitched it is just to show the fold line for the flap and the larger dashed line is just to show the point that the flap will overlap to on the front.